Iraq protests:

There has been an upsurge of violence in Iraq as anti-government protests enter a fifth day, amid reports of bloodshed in the holy city of Karbala.

Reports say up to 18 people were shot dead by security forces there. However, officials denied anyone was killed.

In the capital, Baghdad, thousands of protesters have defied a curfew to demand jobs, better public services and an end to corruption.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi is under growing pressure to resign.

On Tuesday the influential Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr said he would join forces with another powerful politician, Hadi al-Ameri, to bring Mr Abdul Mahdi down through a vote of no confidence.

More than 220 people have died across the country since anti-government demonstrations broke out at the beginning of the month. A first wave of protests gave way to a brief lull, but fresh unrest began five days ago.

What happened in Karbala?

In Karbala - a major centre for Shia Islam - the situation remains unclear, but a number of medical sources and eyewitnesses, backed up by video footage, suggest at least 18 people were killed and hundreds wounded in clashes with the security forces.

Rupert Colville, the spokesman for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said they were trying to get more information about the situation.

"We have received particularly disturbing reports on what has been going on in Karbala... In both those reports [United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (Unami) and an Iraqi government committee], they recognise that excessive force has been used."

He called on local authorities in the city to ensure security forces acted with restraint and investigate the shootings.

The local governor and the police chief in Karbala have denied any protesters were killed, saying that videos circulating widely that show protesters running away from gunfire have been fabricated.

What about Baghdad?

Thousands of demonstrators vowed to continue their protests in the city, filling up the Iraqi capital's central Tahrir Square on Tuesday.

At least 74 people were killed and 3,500 others were injured over the weekend as the protests resumed in Baghdad and elsewhere following a two-week pause that organisers said was designed to give Iraq's leaders time to respond to their demands.

Mr Abdul Mahdi has promised to introduce reforms but protesters remain determined to try to sweep away his government.

On Monday, security forces fired tear gas to deter any attempting to cross a bridge to the fortified Green Zone, which houses government offices and foreign embassies.

After the first wave of protests earlier this month, the prime minister promised to carry out a cabinet reshuffle and cut the salaries of high-ranking officials. He also said he would allocate $66m ($51m) to support the unemployed, set up training programmes for youths, and build 100,000 homes in poor areas.

Will the government survive?

The prime minister has consistently rejected demands by Moqtada Sadr, who leads parliament's largest bloc, to resign and hold snap elections.

Mr Ameri, who heads the second largest group in parliament, has previously backed the government. But on Tuesday he announced that he and Mr Sadr would "work together to achieve the people's demands".

Mr Sadr had earlier issued a public invitation to Mr Ameri to co-ordinate on a no-confidence vote in parliament.

More at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50225055

Pray: for a speedy resolution and that the politicians react positively in the best interest of the Iraqi people.
Pray: for restraint on both sides and an end to the excessive force being used by the authorities.
Pray: for the families and loved ones of the deceased.
Pray: for an end to the corruption that pervades the government and public services in Iraq.

Lebanon's prime minister, Saad Hariri, has announced he is resigning following almost two weeks of anti-government protests.

Mr Hariri said he had hit a "dead end" and would tender his resignation to President Michel Aoun.

Demonstrations across the country have brought it to a standstill. Banks, schools and universities have been shut as a cross-section of society called for the whole government to go.

Hundreds of thousands of people have set aside religious differences and political affiliations and taken to the streets to demand an end to government corruption, inequality and sectarianism.

There have been demonstrations from the northern and traditionally conservative city of Tripoli, through the capital Beirut and all the way to the southern city of Tyre.

Those taking part want the political class that has dominated the country since its 1975-1990 civil war to be overthrown.

Its current economic crisis is the worst since that period, with a black market for US dollars developing in the last month or so.

More at: https://news.sky.com/story/lebanons-pm-al-hariri-to-resign-after-anti-government-protests-11848399

Pray: that the issues of corruption, inequality and sectarianism can be peacefully resolved.
Pray: that the more militant organisations will not take advantage of this unrest.
Pray: for a just and representative government to be democratically elected.
Pray: that Lebanon shall be saved.

Chinese Christians in Anhui are said to be ‘outraged’ after their state-registered megachurch was demolished and their pastors arrested.

Demolition work (pictured) began at Funan County Christian Church on Friday, partway through a worship service. (More information and short video clip of the demolition here.)

Elderly church members knelt down in front of the church, begging officials not to destroy the building, says Release partner ChinaAid. Several fainted and required hospital treatment.

Pastors Geng Yimin and Sun Yongyao were arrested the next day on suspicion of ‘gathering a crowd to disturb social order’. Their church could seat up to 3,000 people.

ChinaAid Director Bob Fu says believers are ‘outraged’.

‘The Chinese Government is now ordering believers to worship in a remote endangered building which can only host a few hundred people,’ he said. Yet, ChinaAid says many Christians, including those in Funan, are too afraid to speak out for fear of more persecution.

Pray: that God will bless His people in Funan and provide a new building for them. Pray that they will grow in unity and faith through this ordeal.

Pray: for the immediate release without charge of Funan pastors Geng Yimin and Sun Yongyao. Ask God to comfort those who were distressed by the demolition.

Praise: God that Christianity is growing fast in China, despite intense persecution. Sources quoted by ChinaAid estimate that there are now more than 100 million Christians in China.

(Source: China Aid)

Israel’s sitting prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, for the second time since April 2019, has been unable to form a coalition government. He returned his mandate to do so to President Reuven Rivlin on Monday 21 Oct. 2019.

Rivlin has since called on Netanyahu’s rival, Benny Gantz, who heads the Blue and White bloc, to try and form a coalition of at least 61 seats in parliament over the next 28 days. It is widely held that Gantz will be unlikely to fare any better than Netanyahu. If he does fail to form a government, an unprecedented third election in one year will take place in 2020. 

The prime minister claimed in a video statement that he tried to bring Gantz to the negotiating table to “prevent another election,” but said Gantz “refused time after time.” (JNN)

PRAYER REMINDER: INTERCEDE FOR ISRAEL’S NEW GOVERNMENT TO BE EFFECTIVELY FORMED SOON:

Once again, the call goes out for intercessors and prayer groups to intercede in this vitally important issue. Pray that Israel's leaders will be able to form a strong and stable government and that a third national election, will be avoided. The damage to Israel as a result of soon repeated elections would be immense.

The direct cost alone would be approximately 700 million shekels, a sum that equals the entire annual budget of the Science Ministry. The indirect price-tag for going back to the polls again would cost the Israeli economy more than 2 billion shekels. This would only be part of the consequences of such an outcome lengthening the current political impasse.

For close to a year now Israel has been unable to carry out important procedures. Senior officials in the various ministries have said the government is “treading water.” They report that new programs cannot be approved, serious processes cannot be conducted and long-term plans cannot be adopted.

The Ministry of the Economy cannot progress with reforms to lower the cost of living. The Interior Ministry is holding back major projects needed by local authorities. The appointments of senior officials – judges, the police chief – are frozen. Diplomatic processes with a direct impact on Israeli security, such as President Trump’s peace plan, have been deferred. Everything is on hold. (JNN)

Source: www.visionforisrael.com

More at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50167387

Indigenous tribes see the Catholic church as a key ally in the ecological fight – and an unprecedented synod is focused on how to stop the destruction.

by Dan Collyns in Puerto Maldonado

A hundred years ago the Harakmbut people were nearly wiped out.

Inhabitants of a vast jungle region where Peru intersects with Brazil and Bolivia, the tribespeople were enslaved by rubber barons and murdered en masse, only surviving thanks to the help of Dominican missionaries.

Now a new threat of extinction looms, and once again they are appealing to the Catholic church.

As wildfires and de-forestation drive the Amazon rainforest towards a tipping point beyond which it cannot recover, Yesica Patiachi, a Harakmbut leader from Peru, is heading to Rome to take part in an unprecedented synod of Catholic bishops from across the region.

Although she is not a practising Catholic, the 32-year-old schoolteacher sees the church as a key ally to save the rainforest.

“Eden is here in the Amazon and we are destroying it,” she said. “We cannot pray to God when we are destroying his creation.”

Starting on Sunday, bishops from the nine South American nations that share the Amazon will meet in the Vatican to try and muster the spiritual and earthly forces to pull the world’s largest rainforest back from the brink of destruction.

One of the synod’s organisers, Father Peter Hughes, said the three-week gathering would set out a new view of ecology based on Christian faith in God as the creator of a “common home”. Hughes said the Catholic church should firmly place itself alongside the region’s indigenous people and defending their territorial rights and way of life.

“The life of the [Amazon] people is intrinsically, inherently part of the territory. If the territory is injured, the people are injured,” he said.

Organizers insist that the church is not simply fighting for its share in the market of souls. Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the president of the synod, said this week that the Amazon was facing a crisis in which ecological problems were inseparable from social issues.

To find a solution, the world must hear “both the cry of the earth and that of the poor”, he said.

Additional reporting by Angela Giuffrida in Rome

From https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/05/amazon-rainforest-catholic-church-synod-vatican

Pray: that the plundering and destruction of these natural resources will stop.

Pray: for the voices of the indigenous people to be heard and acted upon.

Pray: for the people of the Amazon region whose lives and livelihoods have been affected.

This is now the third year of Stop Child Witch Accusation’s (SCWA’s) Standing in the Gap annual prayer campaign for children accused of being witches.

Multiple thousands of children worldwide experience unspeakable abuse because they are perceived to be witches. But we give thanks to God that we are beginning to see change as the understanding, attitudes and practices of those in churches and local communities are being wonderfully transformed through Bible-based teaching and training, and the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit.

God is also graciously responding to the prayers and intercessions of our praying friends, bringing longed-for breakthrough that goes above and beyond human effort.

Thank you so much for joining us in this year’s Standing in the Gap prayer campaign, as we pray over the next three months for God to bring even greater breakthrough into this issue and for his deep healing and restoration to impact communities affected by it. To help guide your prayers, here is the link to the second prayer bulletin: https://stop-cwa.org/posts/prayer-campaign-3b

Let’s continue to pray with expectancy at what God will do through our prayers, by his grace and to his glory!

Pray: For all children to be able to live, learn and grow freely, without dark influences on their lives.

Pray: That any powers of darkness and malevolant spiritual influences will flee from these precious Children of God, in Jesus' name.

Pray: Protection over the vulnerable and those who seek to advocate for them.

Global Outreach Day is a Global Missions Network that calls the Church worldwide to focus on praying and sharing the Gospel with the un-churched in the month of May each year.

This coming year, May 2020 the vision is to mobilise 100 million people in united prayer. 

We are calling this initiative Go2020!

Already, Christians in 250,000 churches across 140 nations are part of this global outreach strategy to pray and witness towards the fulfilment of God's great commission.

IPC's Exec and Leadership Team member, Tom Victor and a number of colleagues will be taking part in the upcoming World Evangelical Alliance General Assembly (WEA). Thousands of leaders representing national church networks in 130 nations will gather in Jakarta, Indonesia from November 7th-13th 2019. 

Please pray for them as they share the GO2020 vision and the GO2020 Kids vision in different plenary sessions and seminars.

Pray: for Werner Nachtigal and Beat Baumann, Go 2020 Global Leaders, as they network with others at the WEA.

Pray: for Bishop Efraim Tendero, global leader of the WEA as he encourages his colleagues to participate in Go 2020. Bishop Efraim is a big champion of Go 2020.

Pray: for Tom Victor as he works with others at the WEA to mobilize for Go 2020 Kids.Pray: for Candy Marballi as she teaches the Prayer Covenant for Children at the WEA.

Pray: for Rick and Becky Olmstead as they lead a 4 to 14 Window Workshop at the WEA.  Pray for them also as they provide overall leadership to the 4 to 14

Window Global Movement.

Pray: for God to raise up strong Go 2020 Kids national and regional leadership teams to mobilize and implement the vision around the world. Write down the revelation and make it plain on tables so that a herald may run with it. (Habakkuk 2:2)

Pray: for God to anoint key leaders in technology and communications as we work on the digital platform to empower children to become Go 2020 Kids.

Pray: for God to raise up and call to himself millions of children around the world as “prayer filled - multiplying disciples” for Go 2020 Kids. Jesus told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Luke 10:2)

More info and sign up for GO2020 at: www.go2020.world/prayer

Let’s also be lifting up Dick Eastman who is a keynote speaker at the WEA - for favour with his Oikos strategy as they contend to see the gospel reach every home in every nation in the next 20 years!

We pray also for John 17 unity and oneness across the leadership of the WEA, the nations and the generations that will be attending!

Invitation to a Holy Convocation to WELCOME the KING of GLORY into FLORIDA

Orlando, Florida ~ November 8, 9,10, 2019

“But to you who fear My Name, the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings.” Malachi 4:2

God is moving powerfully in the United States of America…manifesting His intention to bring us back to the very foundations upon which He brought us forth 243 years ago! As we approach the elections of 2020, we see that the battlegrounds are many, and one state that is absolutely critical at this hour is FLORIDA!

We are being summoned there, where darkness is making a stand, and martialing it’s forces, attempting to take and control the state, the rest of our country.

The battle lines are drawn, and the Lord of Hosts Himself will confront the enemy in FLORIDA. He will “rise and shine” His LIGHT into the darkness and open the doors for those who want to be delivered from captivity.

On behalf of the people of our nation, as representatives of the Ekklesia, the 24/7 National Strategic Prayer Call is calling for a Holy Convocation to WELCOME the KING of GLORY into FLORIDA on November 8, 9, 10, 2019 at the Orlando International Worship Center, 4700 Goddard Avenue, Orlando, FL 32804.

We are reaching out to you, seeking your blessing, endorsement and prayerful participation. This is your personal invitation to join us on behalf of this nation, to stand with us in this endeavour.

Thank you for the way in which you are serving our Lord...and hopefully, for your willingness to be our “companion on this journey.”

More info and sign up at: https://www.facebook.com/events/975347866131244/

WELCOME the KING of GLORY into FLORIDA Coordinating Team:

Audra Smith, Orlando International Worship Center, Maureen Bravo and Pastor Ioan Peia

Australia Calls the World to Pray for the Nations

Australia Christian prayer leaders invite their brothers and sisters in Christ, prayer groups, prayer networks and churches to join with them all over the world to pray at sunrise on New Year's Day 2020 at a public location such as a hill, lookout or landmark in your city or town.

This year our focus is to pray for the nations. Over the last two years we had registrations from 50 different countries including USA, South Africa, Namibia, Pakistan, Japan, United Kingdom, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Zealand, and Australia.   

Warwick Marsh, coordinator for Australia’s National Day of Prayer & Fasting said, “David said in Psalm 108:2, “I will wake the dawn with my song.” During this time of prayer, we want to focus on giving great praise to God. We also want to pray for revival and transformation, that God will bring healing to each of our nations: 2 Chronicles 7:14. Let us all pray for a great harvest of souls for the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Marsh continued, “In declaring Jesus Christ as Lord at this worldwide Sunrise Prayer Relay we are circling the globe with prayer, praise and worship and surrendering our lives to Jesus Christ for the glory of God. Psalms 113:3 says, “From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.” This year we want to challenge people to pray for the nations. Use the prayer resources on the website and social media and register your location at: www.sunriseprayerrelay.org  

Our prayer is that with your help, this worldwide Prayer and Praise Relay will go viral.”

Pat Steele, a prayer & evangelist leader in Wollongong Australia, said, “We encourage you to pray the Lord's Prayer together aloud as the sun rises and make a declaration that Jesus Christ is Lord of your life, your family, your region and your nation. Let’s also join to pray for the nations.

At your location we encourage you to include praise and worship, prayers, and scripture readings. We suggest 30 minutes, but you can pray for longer. You could even take communion, shine a torch, or light a candle. What you do for your sunrise celebration is up to you.”

Share photos and videos from your location on social media.

Use the hashtag: #sunriseprayerrelay 

Website: www.sunriseprayerelay.org  

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sunriseprayerrelay

Instagram: www.instagram.com/sunriseprayerrelay

YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSTHRAixKOQ     

Contact: Warwick Marsh 61 418 225212 or Pat Steele by email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

Hindu World 15 Days of Prayer - 20 Oct - 3 Nov 2019

www.15daysprayer.com

Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church – Sun 3 Nov 2019

https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?c=REMEMBER_PERSECUTED

WEA General Assembly 2019 - 7-12 Nov 2019 - Jakarta

https://jakarta2019.org/en/

The Balkan Call - Nov 7-9, 2019 - Thessaloniki, Greece

https://www.balkancall.org/

Welcoming the King of Glory into Florida – 8-10 Nov 2019
https://www.facebook.com/events/975347866131244/

Finishing the Task Conference 3-5 December 2019

http://finishingthetask.org/

Sunrise Prayer Relay 1st Jan 2020

www.sunriseprayerelay.org   

Seek God for the City Feb 26–Apr 5, 2020

https://waymakers.org/pray/seek-god/  

Go 2020 – Reaching 1 Billion for Christ - May 2020

https://www.go2020.world

One God - One Day - One Africa – 31st May 2020

www.1gda.org

UPRising Events Calendar

UPRising Magpet - November 8-9, 2019 - North Cotabato, Philippines

UPRising Mexico - November 7-10, 2019 - Juarez, Mexico

UPRising Australia - July 14-18, 2020 - Sydney, Australia

UPRising New England - November 19-21, 2020 - New England, USA